Wordless Ties
by Kinjutsu
Summary: Do not bring experimental elixirs home, Sakura knew that but she desperately needed practice with her manual mixing abilities. Suddenly she finds herself in a world that's too big for her, or rather, a body too small for her. Toddler Sakura is born.
1. Prologue

**A/N:** This will be my first attempt at a multi-chaptered fic. I hope you all enjoy it, and as the cliché saying goes...yes I will update more and plot it out more if people like it enough. I've written up the prologue and first chapter, hopefully I can work out a second chapter soon so you guys will get the swing of things. As for shippings/pairings, I want you all to know that ships are one of my favorite things about a story - which means that there WILL be ships. However, I am tied at the moment between KakaSaku, NaruSaku and SasuSaku as the main ship, so it's up to you readers to let me know which one you want to see play out later in the story as I love them all.  
**Disclaimer: **Naruto world is not mine, I just live in it.

Sakura wiped the beads of sweat from her forehead, carefully measuring the right amount of powder-crushed salamander skin and armadillo bile. The rest of the ingredients to the elixir that she was learning to brew were just as vile sounding as they were gut-wrenching to smell. However, the result of it was supposed to smell nothing less of pure baby oil and passion fruit.

_Passion fruit, how the hell is it possible to make bile smell like passion fruit?_ Sakura frowned at the clear flask before her, watching the sickly green potion that she had just concocted. As if Tsunade was reading her mind at the moment, she smiled and motioned for Sakura to look towards her. "Three heavy strokes, counterclockwise, and then five light strokes, clockwise." Her teacher then removed the stirring rod and waited exactly fifteen seconds for the contents to settle and then tilted her flask towards Sakura.

"Pink," Tsunade announced as her potion came out to be the text-book example of perfection.

"Still green…" Sakura replied sadly as she waited past the time the contents were allowed to settle.

"You need to control your arm better. Your heavy strokes are fine, but your light strokes are all uneven and unmatched. That creates a problem as the elixir doesn't settle properly, so clearly your issue is within the last few steps," her teacher explained her observations and watched as her student let out a sigh.

"Remember, this is only the first step," Tsunade went on. "It is very important that you master this level before we move on."

"I understand," Sakura answered her like she always did and went back to focusing on her work. What she was learning to create was something that's similar to artificial chakra. The liquid was designed for wartime ninjas to replenish some of their chakra for a certain amount of time when their chakra level has gone down to zero. The elixir however, has just been created and improved not so long ago, and has been banned for regular usage, even on missions.

"There is still one thing about it that I want to figure out to alter," Tsunade sighed as she absentmindedly took out a bottle of sake from behind her desk. "Some non-ninjas have been found taking the elixir for the artificial chakra, though the situation has been secured since then, it still proves to be a potential problem. If there was only some way to have the elixir acknowledge previous chakra controls…"

"Tsunade-sama, are you drinking again?" Sakura raised her eyebrow when she realized that her teacher was rambling on a bit. Over the years, she has come to find that Tsunade worked best when talking to herself with a bottle of sake.

"Yes…so if I can modify the string A portion of the elixir, and use it as a reacting agent for essence of real chakra…I see," Tsunade started making notes as she continued to think out loud.

"Tsunade-sama!" Sakura cried out.

"Ah Sakura, I think I might have thought of a way!" She smiled happily up at her student, ignoring her question of the alcohol. "Why don't we call it a day? I want to figure this one out before I lose my train of thought."

_Then you can just drink again and pick up where you started._ Sakura couldn't help but think that to herself. "But this is the first step I need to pass, and I've already taken more than two days on this!"

"We will continue tomorrow, that is all." Tsunade replied without looking up. "You are dismissed."

"Dismissed my ass," Sakura muttered under her breath as she decided to slip a few of the ingredients into her bag. She couldn't fit the flask, but she had already figured that a mixing bowl at home would do. If she weren't allowed to practice here anymore, she'd just practice at home.

"I'm going then. See you tomorrow," she smiled brightly at her teacher and hurried out of her office.

Under hooded eyes, Tsunade smiled. She had often told Sakura not to practice by herself under the confines in her own home due to the possibility of things going haywire, but this is one she's going to have to master on her own. Sakura is great with memorizing ingredients and the like; she was also very good with adding her own chakra into medicinal mixes. But Tsunade found that when it came to mastering strokes and other means of manual mixing, Sakura performed very poorly with high inconsistency. Sighing, the godaime fully pulled out her bottle of sake, now that there wasn't an audience to criticize her.

"Tsunade-sama! I urge you to put that away and get on with your work!"

"S-Shizune! When did _you_ come in here!" Tsunade clicked her tongue with annoyance and slipped her bottle back into the drawer. If she pissed Shizune off enough, she knew that the black haired woman would have no problem confiscating it.


	2. Haste Makes Waste, Sakurachan

**A/N :** Warning for later: characters might seem ooc, but hey, that's crack for you.  
**Disclaimer: **I asked Naruto if I can have him yesterday, and he said no. So no, Naruto and all of Naruto worldis still not mine. Sad face

"I didn't know it was this late already," Sakura frowned, looking up at the darkening sky. The ominous, gray clouds were gathering at a distance as Sakura followed her eyes to the horizon. "Or perhaps it's just dark due to bad weather. But either way, I don't think I'm going to be early today."

She was supposed to meet the other members of Team 7 as they usually did twice a week to practice. Each person had their own busy schedule and each person had their own affairs to attend to, but they managed to meet at least twice a week for a few hours still. Naruto juggled with meetings between Jiraiya and Ebisu whenever Jiraiya was not around, Sasuke had taken up lessons with Anko, and Sakura obviously still had lessons from Tsunade. To top it all off, they all had missions of all sorts, and unfortunately they could not participate together on most of them. In a sense, they had come a far way from their gennin years and are more or less independent of each other.

But being independent did not separate them at all, and Sakura couldn't help but being more than grateful for the fact that they still continued meeting. And that was the reason she needed to hurry to get to the park, because of all people, she couldn't be later than Kakashi. That idea was preposterous.

_What was that?_ Sakura suddenly froze in mid-step as she heard an unpleasant noise emitting from her bag. She hadn't brought the flask with her, so it couldn't have been broken glass. And besides, what kind of self-respecting ninja would have such harsh movements as to crack glass when they were not in combat? In her halted position on a random rooftop, she opened her pouch and glanced inside.

"CRAP!" Her alarmed voice rang loudly against the wind as she realized that the armadillo bile she had placed in a small bag had leaked messily into where she kept the salamander skin. She must have not tied the string tight enough since she was concealing her movements from Tsunade, and now this was the result.

_If left alone without water to dilute the bile, the salamander skin would just dissolve._ Sakura thought to herself, remembering what Tsunade had told her before. This meant that if she didn't go home right away to mix water in, all her salamander skin and hopes of getting more practice in would be dashed away.

With a new burst of energy that was well supplied with a heavy layer of panic, she ran all the way back to her apartment. Her parents' home was closer and she had contemplated about stopping there first, but she decided against giving her parents any reason to doubt her capability of being on her own. The last thing she needed was for her parents to think that she was crawling back to them like they seem to think she would.

Finally, with a dry mouth and sweaty palms, she made her way home and into her kitchen. Pulling out the first container that she could find, she dumped the ingredients that was in her bag into the bowl and added water. To her dismay, the container that she resorted to using wasn't a mixing bowl but a cup. It gave her barely enough room to stir properly, and she has yet to add the other ingredients.

_Damn._ She thought to herself and pulled out the rest of what was needed. With excellent dexterity, she measured out the proper amounts of what needed to be mixed in and dumped them in the cup.

_I wonder if I can transfer it all into a bowl later, but then I would risk losing some ingredients in the process._ Her mind argued over it for a while and decided to just stick to the cup and stay safe. To take her mind off, she ran her mind over the amount of ingredients she needed and the procedure.

_Wait! I just mixed six things into here, I needed seven. Crap, what was the seventh!_ She scoured her mind for a few moments and then remembered what it was. Sakura had been in such a rush before that she didn't manage to get the pinch of salt that she needed. Figuring that it would be an annoyance to grab a pinch of salt anyway, she decided that she would just use the one she had at home. With a relief expression that she remembered, she went over to her cupboard and brought out the plastic container and fingered a pinchful into the cup.

_Now to stir…_ She didn't have a proper stirring rod, so she grabbed a slender chopstick from her plastic draining dish rack and began the process, arm tensing with suspense. She didn't have enough salamander skin to try again later, so this is all or nothing.

After making sure she had the correct amount of strokes in, she tried waiting calmly for her elixir to settle. It was puke green now, but hopefully it will settle into a nice pink like her teacher's. Closing her eyes and rubbing the bridge of her nose, she cursed soundlessly under her breath. Fifteen seconds can sometimes feel like fifteen years. To give herself a good distraction, she went and poured herself some water for her case of dry mouth.

Instead of drinking it however, she looked up at the clock, fifteen seconds definitely just passed by. She settled down her cup heavily on the table and she went to investigate her elixir.

_It shouldn't be like this…but maybe it means that I'm getting closer?_ The green was gone, but then so was everything else. What remained was nothing but clear liquid, not the pink that she was striving for. She sighed, wondering why she was so slow in this particular task since she was usually a fast learner.

_Wait. Hold on. Did the clock…?_ She looked back up at her clock and rightfully twitched. Focusing on the second hand, she completely ignored the hour and minute hands till now. "No!" Those hands were now telling her that she was about twenty minutes late in meeting her team.

Sakura slapped her forehead, not believing that she had forgot all about meeting them and ran into her room to get a new bag. Transferring her ninja materials into a clean pouch, she strapped it around her waist and headed back into her kitchen to set her elixir into the cabinet for safe keeping. With the quick rate that Sakura was going at, she almost threw the cup into the cabinet and paused only to look at the cup of water she had poured for herself. Her parched throat reminded her of the reason why she poured it in the first place and reluctantly gulped it down as she hated to waste even a drop of good water.

_Jacket, kunai, bandages, burning sensation in throat…burning sensation in throat!_ Sakura was just making herself a mental checklist of the things she needed to bring when she felt a warm, fuzzly feeling at her throat. The tickling feeling became fiercer as the seconds ticked on. She felt her mind in a haze, her surroundings all melting together in a converging point ahead of her as her vision blurred in her tears.

"Baby…oil?" Her taste buds tingled and shivered as she realized the flavor in her mouth. Unable to gasp, she slowly slid herself down with her back against a wall, trying to unfold her hands so that she can perform a standard poison-extracting seal.

_Horse, tiger, boar….damn._

In the pile of red dress that used to wrap around the body of a seventeen year old girl, a toddler with short pink hair coughed. Her green eyes, still stained with tears, looked around the suddenly overlarge rooms.

_Why did the kitchen counter get taller? Why is my dress…? _Sakura looked down at her hands and then trace them down her short, chubby legs. _OH GOD, NO!_

Somewhere in the distance, a roll of thunder sounded.

* * *

"Shizune, can you clean up the materials please?" Tsunade didn't bother to look up from her work as she ordered Shizune to take care of the scattered items that Sakura was working with. 

"EEEEEH?"

Tsunade clicked her tongue in annoyance as she looked up to see the trademark facial expression that Shizune gave in disbelief. "It's not that big of a deal!"

"It's not that Tsunade-sama, I was already cleaning…but some of the materials are missing!" Shizune exclaimed.

"I know, it is fine."

"But that means that Sakura-san …" Shizune frowned.

"She needs more practice and this is the best way," Tsunade interrupted Shizune's thoughts.

"The salamander skin powder is expensive and hard to come by, Tsunade-sama! Don't you think she shouldn't be wasting it on her own? I could have looked over her if you wanted me to," Shizune replied.

"It's nothing, and besides, she needs to master her own ability of manual mixing," Tsunade waved her hand, signaling that it was nothing.

Shizune let out a sigh. "Hai, if you say so." She started gathering the materials and allowed a smirk on her face. "The only material that she didn't take is the cheap one, figures."

"Cheap one?" Tsunade became alarmed and clenched her fingers tightly around her writing instrument.

"The salt," Shizune picked up the package and smiled. The smile faded however, when she saw Tsunade giving her one of her own trademark expressions for disbelief.

"Nani, Tsunade-sama?"

"Don't tell me she is going to use…cooking salt!" Tsunade jumped up from her chair and grabbed her green jacket.

"Shizune, we're leaving now."


	3. Distractions and Things

**A/N: **I'm sorry for the slow start, but I promise you that the story will go into full swing soon. I'm already working on the next chapter as I type this. I was going to combine it with this chapter, but didn't want everything to be mooshed together. Anyway, thank you Shi-Sha Hariken and cuito for reviewing. Your interest is what fueled me to write this chapter and the next. :)  
**Disclaimer: **I do not own, so please do not sue. I do not have money, especially with the holidays coming around.

"Don't pretend that you can't hear me," Naruto glared heatedly at Sasuke, hitting him at all his lethal points with his gaze.

"I heard you," Sasuke replied coolly, not giving Naruto the satisfaction of his full attention.

"Then answer me already," Naruto shifted his weight from his left foot to his right, crossing his arms tightly to exercise some impatience.

"I don't have to answer to anything," Sasuke replied in the same unmoving manner, knowing well enough that he was pissing Naruto off. "Or anyone, for that matter."

Naruto watched as a small signature smirk played across the lips of the Uchiha and deepened his frown. Having grown over the years, Naruto is probably the one that has matured the most since their genin years. However, that isn't to say that his other two teammates are less mature than he is since it can be argued that he was the most immature to start out with. But never the less, his self control has remarkably grown stronger and is rumored to be so ever since he learned to better control the leakage of the kyuibi during battles. (Someone also told him once that if he ran around screaming his head off all the time, then all the kids would be scared of him – and he figured that he couldn't become the one Hokage that all the kids feared.)

"I guess I'll just have to beat it out of you later," Naruto finally replaced his frown with a competitive grin that ultimately grew into a smirk that matched Sasuke's.

"We'll see about that, dobe," Sasuke, very much amused by his friend's change of temperament over the few years, wondered how long Naruto would last before he loses it.

Naruto's fist clenched, but he just turned his head away. "I don't even know what the big deal is, it was a simple question."

"A simple question does not necessarily generate a simple answer," Sasuke turned his head in the opposite direction and wondered when the other half of the team would arrive. Talking to Naruto was like talking to a wall – a wall that presses you on all sides until you burst with insanity.

_Why am I moving to a new apartment…?_ Sasuke thought about the question that Naruto had asked him. For one, he needed a change. His old place reminded him too much of past mistakes and though his life's goal has been executed, the walls still reeked of sweat and vengeance. Then there was another reason, more subliminal in his consciousness, of having a larger place for at least two or more people. There were nights when he had lain awake, wondering about his real feelings towards Sakura, since she was the one he would ask to move in with him. His instincts told him that she was just a friend, a very close friend - however since she was about the only female companion that he could tolerate, his instincts told him that she was the one that he needed to settle with.

_Settle, what an ugly word. Settling for less, is it really worth it? _Somewhere in the back of his mind though, he knew that it wasn't really him settling for less, it was her. Anyone to take him as who he is, both inside and out, has got to be settling for less. He wouldn't be able to care for her like she would want him to, he wouldn't be able to love her they way she needed him to. Yet she had always wanted to care for him and love him even if it was one-sided, so maybe it was time to just give her what she wants. In a twisted sense, he would be doing her a favor, right? The only problem was that he wasn't sure anymore. It wasn't like she had directed her affections elsewhere, but instead she directed her full attention to her work. He understood that it was important for her to feel useful, but she just seemed to have applied herself too much to her duties.

Silence had befallen the two as Sasuke felt himself deeper in the clutches of his own thoughts, but was soon to be broken by a new arrival.

"Yo," a pleasant voice sounded from above them, darting from tree to tree and then finally settling on the ground in front of them. Kakashi, in his full height, was slightly taller than both the boys. Naruto came next, and Sasuke grudgingly after him. It was a wonder how Naruto grew so tall with his diet consisting mostly of ramen. Kakashi had swooped in a few more times to offer vegetables, but stopped since Naruto refused them every time.

"About time you got here," Sasuke muttered under his breath.

An eyebrow rose slightly on Kakashi's face as he barely caught Sasuke's complaint. Since when did Sasuke verbally complained about his lateness? And before Naruto and Sakura?

"Sorry, I was caught in a cross-fire between two old ladies who were fighting in a store," Kakashi's visibly eye crinkled.

"Liar," Naruto replied simply, almost in reflex.

"Oh?" Kakashi turned to look at his former student.

"What would two old ladies be doing at a porn store? It couldn't be the grocery store, because you never do your grocery shopping on weekdays," Naruto gave him a smug smile as he rose to occasion at Kakashi's challenge.

Kakashi, not being able to formulate a reply decided to ask the question he had wanted to since he spotted their usual clearing. "And where is Sakura?"

"I don't know, she's probably wrapping up with Tsunade or at work," Naruto answered him. Sasuke agreed with a nod.

"In that case, maybe we should wait a little bit, she always – " Kakashi had wanted to say that since Sakura always waited for him when he was late, it was only courtesy that they all waited for her too. Before he could finish though, a voice interrupted him as well as a death-inducing bright flare. A sigh escaped Kakashi's lips and through his mask, he can recognize that shiny glare from anywhere.

"Kakashi! My eternal rival of my springtime youth!" Gai's mouth was set into a large grin, baring his sparkling teeth. A large bead of sweat formed behind Kakashi's head.

"It is my turn to pick the competition," his smile burned brightly into Kakashi's eye, even as he turned around to reach into his a bag that he had brought with him.

"Not now Gai, you know I train with my team every Monday and Thursday of the week," the silver-haired jounin replied.

"Oh…oh, right," Gai's sunny disposition took a sudden leap downwards. It caused Kakashi to sigh however, because it was evident why Gai had stalked him out in the first place. Unlike Kakashi's team, Gai's team had dispersed quite a bit. His prize student, Lee, had been sent to lead a mission that has taken over half a year already. Neji now, has stopped training with Gai entirely and picked up with Hinata's father instead. Even his blossoming Tenten had abandoned him over the course of the last few months since she became swamped with work and preparation as the Chuunin exams neared, being an examiner herself.

"But one of my students is late, so if what you had in mind doesn't take much time…" Kakashi felt sorry for his "eternal rival" and knew that he would probably be feeling the same if he didn't have his old team to train and play with. And though none of his students were his still officially his students, he still refer to them as such since they still met like they usually did – save for the lessened amount of meetings.

"Of course! I will be the first to finish, I assure you. You on the other hand…well we'll see," Gai smiled brightly with renewed confidence and shine.

"Well, what do you have in mind?" Kakashi almost regretted in asking, but knew that he would have to in order to get it all over with.

"You might think I have not noticed you while you were reading your books, but my sharp, light eyes do not lie. I have seen you," Gai announced, tapping his chest with his thumb.

"Not noticed? How can anyone not notice Kakashi while he is reading? Is he insane?" Naruto questioned under his breath with a look of disbelief in his eyes. Sasuke snorted in the same volume of silence.

"And so I challenge you to a reading duel. Whoever can read the fastest wins," Gai finally pulled out a book from behind him and for some reason, colorful waves splashed behind the green spandex-clad man.

Naruto and Sasuke both raised their eyebrows and narrowed their eyes to read the title of the book Gai took out.

"101 Ways to Preserve Youth and Beauty," Naruto read aloud. "I think Tsunade-baasan has that book."

"I brought you a copy too," Gai took out another book out from behind him and tossed it to Kakashi.

"I have my own, thanks," Kakashi frowned as he caught the book.

"No, my fickle flower friend, I know you've reread yours a hundred times and it would be cheating if you use it. And cheating is against all rules in my book of life, it is the utmost- "

"Ok, ok, I understand," Kakashi had a feeling that if he didn't stop him, his speech condemning cheating would go on longer than the competition itself.

"This is a waste of time," Sasuke turned away from the two competitors to his only listener. Naruto nodded and looked up to the darkening sky. Sakura's shift from the hospital was long over and so should her lesson with Tsunade. Something odd was going on.

"I'm think I'm go- "

"I'm going to check on Sakura," Sasuke interrupted him.

"Eeh?" Naruto's eyes shot open the second time that day in disbelief. That was _exactly_ what he was going to say.

"Well I'm going too then," Naruto replied.

"You don't have to," Sasuke told him as he signaled to Kakashi that he was going to be off for a bit.

"It was _my_ idea in the first place, you just took it," Naruto jumped up first and headed in the direction of the hospital.

"Whatever," was Sasuke's reply and he soon followed suit.


	4. Broken Buzzer

**A/N: **Thank you for the reviews and hits and favs and alerts. You guys make my world. There are some reviewers who would like to see SasuSaku and someone asked in particular if that's the set ship – well I'm not sure yet. It's too early to say, but crossing fingers might help. Haha, and now without further ado, I present you the next installment to Wordless Ties. :)  
**Disclaimer: **Naruto-verse not mine, no matter how much I begged Santa.

"What do you mean she left mid-day?" Naruto frowned, pushing his face painted with skepticism towards the young nurse behind the counter. She was obviously new and in training, as she was looking a bit harassed at Naruto's repetitive questions.

"Her shifts usually don't end until the afternoon," He persisted.

"I'm sorry, the sheet shows that she signed out around twelve thirty," the girl said, holding up a clipboard to make a show of her reading it right off the official documentation and that she was not bluffing. To her horror, Naruto tried to snatch it from her to see it for himself.

"Mister, this is confidential! You can't do that!" She exclaimed, tugging hard on her end. Standing up in the effort, she attracted attention from her superior, whom Naruto recognized as one of the older nurses than had tended to him before. "I'm – going – to – have – to – ask…you to leave immediately!" The nurse in a tug-o-war with Naruto cried out.

"Excuse me, what in the world is going on here?" A stern voice interrupted them, belonging to the head nurse. Before long, Naruto found himself ushered out of the hospital with a confirmation that Sakura _did_ leave early that day. Furthermore, he found out that she had special permission from Tsunade to do so, thanks to the information passed to him in confidence from the head nurse herself.

"Eh? Since when did you come out here?" Naruto pointed to Sasuke, who seemed to be leaning against a heavy pillar and waiting for him.

"When you were fighting with that nurse, dobe," Sasuke answered him. He received a scowl from Naruto for his calm-collectedness, but no verbal lashing in return. Which was good, because useless banter like that only wastes time.

"Tsunade-baasan ," was all that was spoken from the blond-haired shinobi. With a nod from Sasuke, they both headed for the hokage's office.

"I have to speak to Tsunade-baasan immediately," Naruto said once they reached her doors. As per usual, he met the two guards that blocked his way. Over the years, the guards have gotten used to Naruto's bursting-ins and have been well acquainted with they way to treat him.

"Well hello to you too, Naruto-kun," one of them smiled. Naruto's eye twitched at the easiness that was being used to deal with him.

His partner next to him frowned however, and took a step forward. "I'm afraid that is impossible." He held hand up before Naruto could yell out. "Tsunade-sama isn't here."

"Isn't …there? Did she say where she was going?" Naruto asked, though it sounded more like demanded.

"No, she took off in a hurry," the guard who was smiling from before told him.

"What about Sakura, she was here earlier, did she leave with Tsunade?" Sasuke asked him.

"Negative, Tsunade left with Shizune-san," he replied.

Sasuke frowned, wondering what everything could be pointing to. They've been to the only two places she would be during the day and she still wasn't to be found. The only place left would be…

"Let's check her place," Naruto told Sasuke. Sasuke nodded, already heading towards the stairs. He felt that there wasn't really a reason to panic, but all in all, this kind of behavior was unlike Sakura. Something very, very strange was going on.

After a few moments of traveling at top speed, they found themselves at a low-budget part of Konoha, where the apartments went for cheap. Naruto always felt the murky brown walls of the block-like building were foreboding and clashed violently with the cheery colors of the rest of Konoha, but Sakura didn't seem to allow it to bother her much. He placed his hand on a cold metal handle, and pulled it open wide enough for Sasuke to follow through right after.

* * *

Sakura peered through the hole where her arm used to go through in her shirt and frowned. There was no question as to what had happened, but _how_ it happened was still in question. At last, she figured that her only hope was to ask Tsunade about it…

_But I'm going to get in trouble for tampering with the ingredients at home! She might even refuse me as a student anymore…well she'd kick my ass first and then dismiss me as her student…_ Sakura felt a small whimper rising in her chest and decided that she might as well move about a little to get a good estimate on her new condition. Pushing herself up, she leaned back slightly and …BAM. An instant stinging and swelling sensation formed at the back of her head as she realized that she had leaned herself back into the wall. When she was in her seventeen year old body, her back was completely pressed against the wall. However when her body transformed, her position must have shifted forward a little, leaving a small amount of space when she shrank. She tried to clutch the back of her head to rub the pain away but realized in horror that her shortened hands could not reach the precise spot.

She felt like crying.

Like a baby.

…that she arguably was at the moment.

She raised a soft fist and rubbed at her eyes, willing herself not to cry despite the hopelessness of the situation. For all she knew, the affects could wear off soon. She had not master the brewing of this potion yet, so it couldn't possibly be that strong, right? Right. And so she leaned _forward_ this time, and pushed herself off the floor. Her knees wobbled only slightly, and to her relief, she could stand. Tugging the overlarge clothing off of her, she started walking back into her kitchen when she realized that she was naked.

_Damn! I don't have any of my baby clothes…I should have brought them over when I moved._ With her wailing thoughts in her head, she ran into her bedroom to find something that she could use to cover herself with. Perhaps a small towel, no that wouldn't stay on too well would it? Looking around, she thought of everything from her pillow case to one of her doll's clothing. But the pillow case was too strange to wear and the doll's clothing was too small. Finally, without another choice, she pulled out a shirt that came near her belly button on her seventeen year old body but fell well past the knees in her current form. The shirt itself was in a rather hideous shade of green and unlike her neatly hanged clothes, was buried at the bottom of her closet.

_Why am I more worried about finding something that looks better when I should be worried about getting out of this predicament in the first place!_ She was still searching the bottom of her closet for something better when she realized that she should be looking over her brew to figure out what might have went wrong. Standing straight up, she turned to leave her bedroom when her leg got caught on around an old shirt. Tripping, she fell face first but extended out a knee to quickly stop the floor from colliding with her head. "Ahh!" She cried both with annoyance and pain, but noted that it wasn't so bad. Now if it was her head instead, the intensity would have increased tenfold.

As she was scrambling around to get up to her feet, she noticed that crawling was a lot quicker and safer. She hadn't crawled in ages, except when it was called for on missions, but to hell with pride. If she was quicker on all fours, then so be it. Just as she was nearing the doorframe that connected her bedroom to the living room/kitchen, she heard a loud splinter of wood. Someone had gotten through her door.

Living alone in a rather poor neighborhood, anyone would render a girl fearful of burglars and the like. However she was a _kunoichi_, so she didn't let it bother her at. Hell, on some nights, Sakura _wished_ that there were burglars for her to beat the crap out of. But not tonight, not when she had the body of a two year old.

She quickly dove behind her door and peered out through a crack.

"SAKURA-CHYANNN!" Sakura's ears perked up as she heard the rough voice of the speaker, enunciating her name the way only one person would. _Naruto!_

For the first time since her transformation, she smiled. "Naa..ah?"

Frowning, she tried to call out to Naruto again. "Naaa…eeee. Naaa…NAA!"

_What's going on?_ It seems that her motor skills weren't completely developed. Her mind currently held the capacity of a teenager, but it seems that her bodily functions were not cooperating. _But if I **know** what I want to say, then I should be able to **say** it! _And so she decided to try again.

"Naa…Sazu?" Sakura saw Naruto entering her kitchen and leaving her view, replaced shortly after by Sasuke. "Sazu?" She repeated again.

Suddenly she heard muffled cries coming from her kitchen and decided to recover from the shock of seeing them. Quickly, she crawled out of her bedroom and into her kitchen. The two boys hovered above her, Naruto crying out and frantically gesturing like a maniac. Since Sasuke's back was facing her, she couldn't figure out what all the commotion was. I mean, they haven't even _seen_ her yet, so what the hell?

"SAZU!" She cried out loudly, but got no reply. "Naa…?" No reply from Naruto either. Quietly, she picked herself up from all fours and walked closer to them to get a better look.

_Oh. Man._ "Naa…bak!" She had meant to call Naruto an idiot, and succeeded halfway.

* * *

**(Five minutes ago)**

"Are you sure you pressed it?" Sasuke asked, standing behind Naruto who was looking at the buzzer to Sakura's apartment expectantly.

"Yes," Naruto almost growled in irritation. Even an idiot can press a button, not saying that he was one, of course.

"Press it again, maybe she didn't hear it," Sasuke moved forward to see if he even pressed the _right_ one. A few months ago, when Sasuke visited Sakura to return a scroll, he accidentally pressed the wrong one. What resulted was a very angry old woman who kept on screaming about being 'harassed' repeatedly. Now Sasuke wasn't stupid or anything, but it was the first time he went to her apartment without Sakura bringing him in herself and it turned out that a few kids switched the button labels as a prank.

"No, no way," Naruto frowned and moved to place himself between Sasuke and the button. "The last time I pressed the button more than once, Sakura nearly killed me."

Sasuke sighed, wondering just how many times Naruto pressed it to get elicit an angry response from Sakura. "One more time wouldn't hurt."

Naruto gratingly sighed. "Fine." Turning around again, he jammed his finger into the button again. "But if she gets mad, then I'm going to tell her the truth about you – huh?"

Both the boys watched as the button loosened and fell out as Naruto retracted his finger. The shell hit the floor with a light click and bounced once before rolling behind the coil-like furnace in back of them.

"I- it wasn't- what the hell?" Naruto looked at the hole where the button used to be, empty now, save for a wire or two.

Sasuke lowered and shook his head scornfully, opening the door to the stairway. "I guess we'll just have to knock." Naruto followed him up the stairs silently to the second floor and knocked on the third door from the left of the staircase.

"Doesn't seem to be anyone inside," he frowned, pressing his ear to the door. "Oy, Sakura-chan!" Still no response. He turned around and met an equally perplexed Uchiha.

"Do you think we should go in anyway? Maybe she was attacked inside," Naruto asked, eyebrows knitted with concern.

"How are we going to get in? Do you have a spare…" Sasuke trailed off in the middle of his word. "Why did I even bother to ask?" He sighed as Naruto successfully kicked open the door, breaking the top hinge in the process. No matter how grown up, Naruto would never escape his enthusiasm.

"Eh? Doesn't seem like anyone's here," he surveyed the immediate room, which was the living room. Everything was in place and no vestige of struggle seemed to have taken place. Turning over a little bit, he saw that the kitchen light was on – and Sakura wasn't the type to leave lights on while she was out. He then decided to call out her name. "SAKURA-CHYAN!"

Sasuke noted the same thing about the kitchen lights as Naruto did and motioned for him to check it out while he looked around in the living room for any hints of what had happened. Naruto nodded and went inside, being more observant than he usually was – this was Sakura after all.

_Her clothes…_ Sasuke picked up the clothing from the floor that Sakura had shed earlier and felt a tremor of worry running through his mind. He placed them on her couch and decided to look around longer. "Did you find anything?" He called out to Naruto.

"No, I…eh?" Naruto had started to report that he didn't find anything when he seemed to have changed his mind midway. His eyes fell on a cup on the counter, nearly empty saved for a ring of what he perceived was to be water at the bottom. Beside it sat a few foreign objects that he had no idea of what purposed they served. However from the crushed powdery form, he figured that it was some sort of spice used for cooking – he was in her _kitchen_ after all. Wanting to make sure, he pressed his index finger on the brownish powder and brought it to his mouth, licking it with his tongue.

"KKKKKKKKKKKKK….." His face contorted and turned green as he spat loudly into Sakura's sink, because little did he know he just tasted some salamander skin in its raw form. Well salamander skin in _any_ form is rather nasty, but still…

He turned on the faucet and rinsed his mouth ten times before grabbing the empty cup on the counter and filling it with drinking water. Tipping the cup back, he drank the whole thing and wiped his wet lips on his sleeve. "Never…remember to never…accept Sakura's invitation for dinner if she ever decides to cook," he whispered his mental note out loud.

"What did you say?" Sasuke entered the kitchen now, since Naruto seemed to have stumbled onto something. His eyes shot open in surprise but Naruto screamed out first.

"AH! HOW DID YOU GET SO TALL?" He pointed straight up at Sasuke, because remember, Naruto was taller than him.

"What the hell did you do?" Sasuke asked, walking over to him.

"AH! WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO MY VOICE!" His voice screeching as he cried out, dangerously reminding him of his pre-teen years…

Apparently the cup that he drank from had some of the ingredients left from the brew that Sakura had made, though wasn't as potent as the version that Sakura had consumed. On top of that, he had diluted it with more water, so all in all, he was only set back a few years.

"Naa…bak!" A small sound came from below them and the thirteen year old Naruto looked down. "Who are you?" He shot her a face of old-man scrutiny as Sasuke turned to look at the source of the small voice.

"…Sakura?" Sasuke's eyes traveled from her green eyes to her chin-length pink hair.

Notes:

Sazu - Sakura's version of 'Sasuke'

Naa -Sakura's version of 'Naruto'

Question you might have in mind: Where the hell are Tsunade and Shizune? Do not worry, I didn't forget about them. Anyway, this chapter turned out a bit longer than I had intended – I'm still getting used from the transition from 1-2 paragraphs of rping to full blown chapters of fanfiction. I'm not very pleased with this chapter, as I think it needs a bit more of some spit-n-shine, but I'm suffering from multiple brain farts at the moment. Perhaps if I have time after finals and all I will return and edit some stuff, but as of now, I just want to get the story down.


End file.
